1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to vending machines and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for advancing the sale of vending machine products by offering and selling discounted products, the identities of the discounted products being revealed after receipt of payment.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is believed that the first modern vending machine was installed in the late 1880s. The first vending machines were rudimentary devices primarily designed to dispense cigarettes and postcards. Modern vending machines are employed to store and dispense a vast array of merchandise in response to a consumer request and appropriate payment. Such merchandise includes products such as drinks, candy, frozen deserts, snacks, video tapes and children's toys.
Many entrepreneurs are attracted to the basic concept of selling products using a vending machine. Vending machines are generally considered to have significant advantages over traditional merchandising methods. Specifically, vending machines enable the automated sale of merchandise at unconventional locations and times, and require no sales personnel to sell products.
Prior vending machines, however, have several disadvantages when compared to traditional merchandising, particularly relating to inventory control and pricing. With respect to inventory control, one disadvantage is the difficulty of selling or “turning over” an inventory of items that are of low demand, of inferior quality, and/or which are perishable. Although some vending machine suppliers offer to buy back inventory from operators who no longer want to sell certain products, in order to mitigate revenue loss such suppliers often fail to live up to their offer when an operator tries to exercise this option.
Quantity Discounts
There have been various attempts to improve inventory turnover using vending machines that encourage consumers to buy larger quantities of a product. Such attempts, as disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,008,792; 4,498,570; and 4,679,150 have advanced the art by providing various means that enable a consumer to purchase a product at a quantity discount. These advancements may advantageously encourage additional purchases of an item at a vending machine, but they are likely to affect only consumers who can utilize multiple units of the same product. Further, these inventions do not address the broader problem of improving sales of low demand, low quality or perishable products.
Complementary Products
Some operators have addressed inventory and price management problems by selling complementary products, such as chips and soda, from the same machine. By selling complementary products, operators hope to passively induce consumers to purchase lower demand products, as certain snacks may be, by placing them in proximity to higher demand products, as certain sodas (e.g. COCA-COLA) may be. Operators may also use this technique to indirectly pair highly profitable products with less profitable ones. The passive nature of this technique, however, limits its effectiveness. Because conventional vending machines do not employ sales personnel, consumers presently are not actively persuaded to purchase low demand or perishable products.
Inventory Analysis and Control
Other attempts to address problems associated with inventory control include inventory analysis products that employ a proactive approach. These products assist operators in deciding what products to stock, when to restock and at what quantities. Systems, such as a software product entitled “Windows for Vending PRO with Inventory” by Vendmaster and a system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,800 to Hayashi, have been designed to report product sales data. VendMaster's product is intended to enhance a vending machine operator's ability to identify high-demand inventory and determine preferable times to stock the machine. There have also been attempts to address inventory control problems through systems that enable operators to remotely monitor inventory and remotely retrieve sales data, such as the system described by U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,292 to Sedam et al.
The aforementioned solutions generally attempt to solve inventory problems by allowing operators to monitor and analyze raw sales data. These solutions fail to adequately address the aforementioned shortcomings of present vending machines. Specifically, these prior systems fail to provide adequate solutions to the problems of maintaining an inventory of perishable items; increasing inventory turnover; and recovering the investment in low demand or inferior quality items.
Another attempt to address problems associated with inventory control is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,435 to Picioccio. The Picioccio patent is directed to a bulk vending machine having bins that can be used to dispense product mixes selected by a consumer. A “mystery” blend option is also available. Upon selection of the mystery blend option, the vending machine selects a product mix from the available products in accordance with inventory management practices. The consumer receives the same quantity of product at the same price that would have been paid had the mystery option not been selected. As such, this attempt fails to actively promote the sale of low demand, perishable and less profitable products through any form of reducing pricing schedule and/or perishable product expiration date analysis.
Others have attempted to address problems associated with expiring vending machine products. Such attempts have focused on limiting the sale of expired vending machine products. As such, these attempts have not actively promoted the sale of such products through the use of expiration dates to determine a product's price on a dynamically changing basis. For example, in a product developed by Automated Vending of America, Sunkist Growers, Inc. and Cavalier known as “The Sunkist Peeled Citrus Machine”, a bar code system is used to prevent dispensing of fruit after its 16 day shelf life. This system does not however make any attempt to advance the sale of products as they approach the end of their shelf life.
A need therefore exists for a method and apparatus that addresses these deficiencies of prior systems. In particular, a need exists for a method and apparatus that monitors supply and demand of a vending machine inventory and that encourages consumers to purchase low demand, perishable and less profitable products. Further, a need exists for a method and apparatus that determines and dispenses a product based on a monetary amount received from a consumer. The present invention addresses such problems by providing an apparatus and processing approach that have not previously been proposed.